There's a lot of halabalu here about the UK government wanting to FORCE the NHS NOT to treat foreigners who come to the UK for FREE HOSPITAL TREATMENT.

It's said that doctors don't want to have to choose who gets treated, they want to treat ALL poorly people. What an utterly STUPID attitude. Doctors are paid through taxes and they have to treat their customers (UK Taxpayers) and NOBODY else ! A supermarket worker can't just hand out food to the hungry, a bus driver can't just let people board a bus without a ticket, they would be fired on the spot !

Personally I can't understand the problem, whenever I traveled I always had to PROVE that I had medical insurance, a return ticket and enough cash for the duration of my stay. It should be the duty of Air/Ship/Train/Bus companies who cross national boarders to ensure that THEIR CUSTOMERS have the correct documentation and sufficient funds. If they can't afford it they can't travel .

The real question is: which TWATS (our own idiots) made the rules that allow people to come without proper credentials ? THEY should be hung out to dry and forced pay the missing millions into the NHS. Perhaps Mrs May should take a lesson from Donald Trump: an order from the top: No insurance: NO ENTRY !!!!!

Bill,
I agree with the insurance on entry. But why should medics have to act as border guards. All who enter the UK should be refused entry unless they have cover. The doctors and nurses have enough to do with out checking who they are treating, the queues would get even longer if all patients have to prove they are brits or aliens.
It all boils down to government cuts to border agency and customs,they have all cut back on front line stall. So not enough time to check who is who let alone what paper work they have. While managers and management advisors grow in numbers. just like in the NHS.

you are of course right, it should not have to be the job of the doctors ! As I mentioned I think it's the job of those who transport the people to the UK, or abroad, the travel companies, who should be responsible for ensuring that 'their clients' have suitable credentials. They wouldn't let somebody on board without a ticket, passport or boarding pass and if required vaccination certificates, it wouldn't be all that difficult for them to ensure that their clients also have appropriate medical AND accident insurance.

Anyway, it's rarely the doctors, it's the receptionist who usually accepts the patients and in the case of the UK all Brits have a national insurance number. I know mine by heart even though I have not used it for almost 30 years. Here in Germany one has to carry a medical insurance card: following an accident at work I once lay for hours in A&E in agony with multiple broken ribs because I didn't have my insurance card with me. It was only after they had been able to contact a colleague who brought my wallet and insurance card that I was treated. If they had treated a dog like that the RSPCA would have sued them !

Even so, I can understand that others should not have to pay for tourists medical care, if they can afford to make the journey they should have to dig a bit deeper and pay their own insurance. After all we are talking about many, many millions which are then missing for our own sick people, it's not as if the NHS or we are swimming in money !

All
We have a problem with NHS which dates back some 20 to 30 Years, or more. The UK has always taken in strays who come and use our NHS rather than pay in their own countries. Due to the amount of people who are coming to live in the UK, the money available will not cover them . The incomers have more illness than
us which means our as gone

Bill and Tony
My son who is married to a German girl took my youngest granddaughter to Germany to see her German family when she was just a few weeks old, While there she fell seriously ill and they called an ambulance, due to her very young age my son and daughter-in-law had not got a EU certificate for her the ambulance staff refused to take her until my son paid in cash for the trip to hospital. When there the doctors again wanted the certificate before treating her, but relented when the realised how ill she was, in the meantime my wife and I had to quickly arrange for a certificate and fax it to the hospital.
If the German medics can do it, why can't the British medics?
But I do agree you Bill, insurance should be mandatory for all travellers and the carriers should check insurance when they check passports.
Recently one Nigerian woman had £500,000 of treatment free because she had no insurance.
Sammy

this is just another reason why all nations must re-establish boarder controls. What is so horrific about showing your passport and documents at a boarder ? It really is not a question of being a racist but there are THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS of people out there who, like flies to a light, are attracted to our very good system. Did not our own people, in times of yore, head for London believing that the streets were paved with gold (the Dick Whittington story). You can't blame foreigners at all for wanting to be healed and have a better life.

Even so, I believe that all tourists MUST be healthy upon arrival (doctors certificate !) and have health and accident insurance and they MUST be made to go, leave immediately, when their visa expires.

Immigrants are NOT visitors and our politicians must get the rules of entry right for them, they MUST have a working knowledge of the english language BEFORE THEY ARRIVE, they MUST be young and in good health and they must be willing to accept our culture. That does not forbid them from maintaining their own culture UNLESS their culture demands of them the destruction of all other cultures, in which case THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO ENTER OUR COUNTRY, now who else thinks like that ? ah Mr Trump.

Refugees are neither tourists nor immigrants, they are fleeing disasters or war and as far as I am interested their danger ends as soon as they leave the disaster / war zone. The notion that they can choose where they want to flee to is ridiculous, you and I can't just choose to live in Australia or the USA or anywhere else ! Sure we should try to help where ever they flee to, (a neighbouring country) with water, food and accommodation and field hospitals for the injured but that's it, they are out of danger ! Indeed that is just about what the Dublin agreement for the EU was before that stupid cow Merkel broke European law by demanding that the boarders be opened.

Political Asylum is altogether something else. It's a back door for shit-stirer's who can't get on in their own place of birth / residence. It's a fairly exclusive club and you have to be seen as being fairly dangerous in your own land to acquire this status. Edward Snowdon is a good example.

In my view pretty well everything else is bull-shit, the NHS, our nation will simply destroy itself and our own peoples by trying to help everyone. "You can only help somebody if you yourself are strong, If you are a poor swimmer and try to help a drowning person or animal the chances are: neither will survive !"

I have said it before: the greatest problem on this planet is the never ending human expansion. All effort must be made to urgently reduce populations by peaceful means otherwise war is inevitable and all of those little pisser, demonstrators, destroying our system from within, will be facing the machine guns and machete's of those who's rights they think they are protesting for.

Bill/Tony
I have been watching a programme about how Australia run their boarder controls and while at times they seem to be quite harsh, they do seem to work for the good of the country and surely that is the aim of any boarder controls.
I'm only seeing it on TV and have no direct independent information but I must admit that I admire the way they do it, perhaps Arnie or Rick could give us some better informed info.
This latest fuzz about under 18s coming into England from France and it being compared with the Kinder transports of the 1930s is totally false. In the 1930s the children were escaping the concentration camps and were not safe in any country in Europe, these latest under 18s are safe in France so there is no direct comparison.
Sammy

unfortunately cant help you at all. Perhaps Ric can. Last time I left the country it was on a cruise liner from Fremantle to Fremantle.
Despite the age(74) the excitement got to me and I wasn't watching the BORDER Control people, in or out. The only travelling I have done besides that was internal, lets face it Oz is big enough. Sorry can't help you all.
The Auxillary Border controllers are unfortunately themselves uncontrollable, they are called sharks but work reasonably well.
The only boarders, alternative name, lodgers, stay at B&B or other such accommodations.